1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera system, a camera device, an image recording medium, a printing system and a server apparatus. More particularly, it relates to a camera system, which photographs a subject with a camera and records image data obtained by this photographing onto an image recording medium, and to the camera, the image recording material, a printing system and a server apparatus, which are used with the camera system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, cameras (hereinafter, termed “silver halide cameras”) which employ a silver halide photographic film (hereinafter, simply termed “film”) as an image recording medium, have been extensively used for photographing. In recent years, owing to the development of electronic imaging and digital signal processing devices based on great advances in semiconductor IC technology, wide bandwidth data compression technology, high-speed large-capacity communication technology, etc., a so-called “digital still camera” (hereinafter, referred to as, “DSC”), whose image recording medium is a memory for recording electronic image data, is rapidly coming into wide use. Since the DSC acquires a photographic image in the form of the digital data, it exhibits an excellent affinity with various types of digital equipment and the Internet, and it is utilized especially as a peripheral equipment for inputting the photographic image into a personal computer (hereinafter, referred to as a, “PC”).
Common to both the silver halide camera and the DSC is that there are the images of photographs taken need to be printed and enjoyed and further kept them in albums. In case of the silver halide camera, print services, which offer integrated firm developing and printing, are already established at photo labs (or camera stores, photograph shops, and the like) in various places, and it is generally widespread.
However, in case of the DSC, since it has spread as the peripheral equipment of a PC, the photographic image is often printed using a color printer connected to the PC, and the image quality of the printed photographic image is greatly affected by the performance of the printer and by the type of paper used. For this reason, a print service has recently been offered, which reads out the photographic image from a memory for recording the photographic images taken by the DSC, for example, a memory card such as Smart Media card, MEMORY STICK, COMPACT FLASH or SD card, and which a print of high image quality, as in the case of the silver halide camera. Accordingly, general users desire improvements in the convenience and the quality of the print service for cases when the silver halide camera or the DSC is utilized.
Meanwhile, such a print service, which provide services via a network, such as, a network photo system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 11-154218, has been proposed owing to the recent widespread use of the Internet. More specifically, a server computer, which has a film scanner, a printer, a large-capacity recording disk system, and the like installed therein is disposed in a major collection/delivery photo lab (large photo lab) or a small-scale photo lab (mini photo lab) for developing and printing a film, and the image server is accessed through the network by the general user, which image server offers various services such as reception of an order for print a photographic image, attachment of the photographic image to an electronic mail, and the downloading the photographic image (image data) and the like.
In the network photo system, however, information for identifying individual customers and order information items, which indicate contents of orders, need to be managed together with photographic images. For example, in the case of the silver halide camera, when the customer carrying the exposed film requests printing at a photo lab, he/she must fill in this information by hand, which is bothersome. Besides, when placing order for additional printing (for an additional copy), the customer must carry the developed film to the photo lab and similarly enter the individual information and the order information by hand.
Even in the case of the DSC, when the customer has carried a memory card including the images of photographs taken, to the photo lab, he/she is required to enter the individual information and order information by hand as in the case of the silver halide camera. That is, with the DSC, even though the photographic image is electronically recorded, the individual information or the order information is not electronically integrated with the data of the photographic image, and the user cannot obtain convenience higher than that of the print service for the silver halide camera.